Health blog Category: physical therapy
Shoulder Pain Relief: How Physical Therapy Can Help You Overcome It
If you’re experiencing shoulder pain with certain movements or while trying to sleep, physical therapy can help you get the shoulder pain relief you deserve. One common culprit of this pain could be your rotator cuff.
The rotator cuff plays a crucial role in providing the strength and stability needed for everyday activities such as:
- Brushing your hair
- Brushing your teeth
- Lifting objects overhead
- Throwing a baseball.
Core Strength and Stability in Everyday Life
Is it a cleaning week/weekend in your house? Oftentimes while starting to clean people often bend, twist, and lift many more objects that they do in their normal daily routines, which in turn leads to either low back or neck pain. One of the most common causes of this is due to core weakness causing instability and compensations throughout the body while moving.
What Really is Core Strength
When people think of core strength, their first thought is that this includes the abs, specifically the rectus abdominal muscle which is what makes the “6-pack” that people commonly associate with core strength.
Read full blogPoor Posture to Blame for Chronic Back Pain
Could poor posture be to blame for your chronic back discomfort and pain? Chronic back pain and discomfort is a debilitating condition that will affect the majority of Americans at some point during their life. In fact, chronic back pain is one of the leading reasons people go to the doctor and employees miss work.
The Role of Posture in a Health Back
A strong core means a healthy back.
Read full blogFoam Roller: How to Loosen a Knot
Ever had a stubborn knot in your neck, back, leg, really anywhere in the body? These knots can be painful and make daily motions difficult and uncomfortable. But what do you do when you can’t seem to stretch our that knot? As physical therapists, we are always looking at different techniques and exercises to incorporate into our sessions with patients. We challenge and work their bodies so they become stronger, more flexible, and more mobile.
Read full blogFrozen Shoulder Treatment in Loudoun County: How Physical Therapy Can Help
What is Frozen Shoulder?
Frozen shoulder, medically known as Adhesive Capsulitis, occurs when the tissues surrounding the shoulder joint thicken and tighten. This leads to:
- Stiffness
- Limited range of motion
- Difficulty moving the arm
Frozen shoulder can make everyday tasks—like reaching into cabinets, driving, or playing with your children or grandchildren—painful or impossible.
Read full blogSource of Elbow Pain
Many people have heard of and will use terms like ‘tennis elbow’ and ‘golfer’s elbow.’ What exactly are these conditions and what’s the difference? The truth is, not much. Tennis elbow and golfer’s elbow are both overuse injuries that are caused by any activity that requires repetitive motion of the arm and wrist.
The difference between the two conditions:
The difference lies in where the elbow is inflamed.
Read full blogThe Effects of Poor Posture On Neck Muscles
Forward head posture is exactly what it sounds like. Your head starts to shift forward, instead of your head resting with your ears in line with the sides of your shoulders.
Posture plays a huge role in all of our activities and the increased use of cell phones, tablets and computers has made forward head posture a problem for many.
Over time, this can cause:
– Neck pain
– Decreased neck motion
– Shoulder pain
– Decreased shoulder motion
– Upper back pain
Why is forward head posture bad?
Read full blogWhat is Manual Therapy?
Manual Therapy is made up of many different hands-on techniques that we use in the clinic. Each offer their own benefits and are implemented for many reasons. We use manual therapy to help restore mobility, restore joint movement, decrease nerve tension, and improve nerve mobility and help reduce pain.
There are many different techniques that fall into the category of manual therapy. Some of these categories include but are not limited to:
- Soft Tissue Mobilization
- Joint Mobilizations
- Muscle Energy Techniques
- Passive Range of Motion
- Neural Mobilizations
Soft Tissue Mobilization:
Soft Tissue Mobilization helps to reduce soft tissue adhesions and help promote muscle, ligament, and tendon mobility.
Read full blogHamstring Injury Recovery
Hamstring injuries can occur to anyone. However, they are most common amongst athletes, due to movements involving high-speed running, high kicks, tackling, and splits.
What are Hamstrings and How are They Injured?
The hamstring is a combination of 3 muscles:
- Semitendinosus
- Semimembranosus
- Biceps femoris
Injury is dependent on intensity of sport along with other variables such as: duration, frequency and/or body compensations for other lower extremity injuries (such as injury to meniscus).
Read full blogHow to Recover from an ACL Tear with Physical Therapy
The phrase “ACL Tear” can strike fear into the hearts of athletes and fans alike. It’s an injury that often means season-ending surgery and a long road to recovery. We see headlines like “6 to 12 Month Recovery” and wonder:
- Will that athlete ever be the same?
- Why does it take so long to recover from ACL surgery?
- What is an ACL, and why is it so vulnerable to injury?
